Daily Lesson from Life 29 October 2008

"Wed, Oct 29, 2008 The New Paper Angry, young and over here

BLAME it on the stresses of society or poor upbringing, but Singapore's young are getting more angry and violent. They may be teenagers or in their early 20s, but they are brimming with so much anger that they are quick to hit.

They bully, they batter, they hammer. They have no qualms harming others.


A recent case in point: Three siblings, aged 18, 20 and 25, ganged up to torture their Indonesian maid, Ms Badingah. They forcibly extracted the maid's teeth, poured boiling wax on her head and caned her, as the courts heard earlier this month."

It is indeed a very sad and shocking news to learn that young people can do such evil acts on another fellow human being!

The news report also quoted many other examples of violent behaviors by youngsters towards their parents, their school mates, their friends, etc...

Some of the reasons given were: poor upbringing, parents themselves are behaving in a violent manner, low self-esteem, poor moral and social education, etc...

Lessons for me:

1. unless there are mental condition that fired up the chemistry in the brains to cause violent behaviors, most violent acts must have consequences. When it happened, the perpetrators must know that there will be consequences and they have to pay a price. There will be no excuses entertained;

2. prevention is better than cure in this situation as young people's mind can still be molded relatively easier. It starts from home, extends into the school, and hopefully society at large also encourages peaceful and proper acts. Parents must be the role model. They need help to learn to deal with the youngsters, who may not be on the same wave length as the parents, especially if they are not educated. Parents education is really a must for these lots of people. In school, the principles and teachers should not just focused on academic achievement but also give equal, if not more weight, to imparting and instilling high moral behaviors;

3. for these that already committed violent acts and dealt with by the laws, we must understand the root causes and cataloged them. The information, without names being mentioned, should be shared in the school and parents associations, so that they are aware of why to look out for and how to deal with the violent tendency before it takes root.

It will be a waste of our limited national resources if we allowed our young to continue to be angry, and over here!!